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How To Hire Hospitality Staff

How To Hire Hospitality Staff
Post Series: How to Hire

The hospitality industry has endured challenging times. As business once again begins to boom, the job market has become competitive, with employers all seeking the best talent with the right skills. Therefore, hiring staff for the hospitality sector requires leveraging effective recruitment solutions that attract applicants within a reasonable timeframe and recruitment budget. Whether you are hiring hotel managers or kitchen porters, our hospitality hiring guide will help you hit the ground running and source the best candidates with the skills you need.

Download Job Advert Template

In our Hospitality Staff Hiring Guide, we discuss:

  • Preparing To Recruit Hospitality Staff: Your Employer Brand & Company Careers Page
  • Writing Hospitality Job Descriptions & Job Adverts
  • How To Hire All Hospitality Staff
  • Advertising Your Hospitality Positions: Referral Schemes, Social Media, & Job Boards
  • Reducing Recruitment Process Costs And Time: Recruitment Companies & ATS
  • Screening Job Seekers & Conducting Interviews
  • Presenting A Job Offer & Onboarding Hospitality Workers

Preparing To Recruit Hospitality Staff: Your Employer Brand & Company Careers Page

How To Recruit Hospitality Staff

Before you begin to advertise externally for hospitality industry staff, you should review all your existing candidate touchpoints to ensure you are promoting a positive employer brand. You will ultimately only secure the right candidates if you show that you are a highly desirable employer where people will want to work. This is crucial for a work environment that is often seen as offering low pay and having high turnover. Focusing on how you will keep employees happy should be a top priority for all hospitality businesses.

It would help if you considered how you portray your company culture, company values, and your business success, along with other elements such as supporting further training, career development, and personal growth (particularly for Generation Z candidates). In our Guide On How To Hire, we explore deeper the topics of Why Should SMEs Build An Employer Brand and What Should Be On A Company Careers Page.

Writing Hospitality Job Descriptions & Job Adverts

How To Write A Job Profile

You can only write an accurate job description and job advert for your hospitality workforce if you speak to key decision makers in the hiring process, including the position’s line manager:

Hospitality Job Descriptions

Writing a job description for a hospitality role will help your hiring manager speed up the hiring process. The best practice is to have one on file for all company positions, which can be quickly updated and used to create the job posting whenever recruitment needs arise.

Download Job Advert Template

For Search Engine Optimisation, it is a good practice to integrate keywords and key phrases that potential candidates might search for in a search engine. The job specification should have a clear message to attract the most suitable candidates. It also helps to refrain from using excessive punctuation and too much industry jargon.

When writing a job description for the hospitality industry, consider:

  1. Identifying and outlining typical organisation-wide requirements
  2. Collating today’s minimum qualifications, and previous experience (which may be in other industries)
  3. Reviewing what your competitors are saying in their job ads
  4. What your new hires should look like
  5. How you want your brand, hotel, or restaurant to be perceived

Our Job Description Templates can help you get started; we appreciate writing this content can be a challenge. You can discover the most popular Hospitality Job Descriptions here.

Further new resources we have created include How To Define What People Do In Their Jobs, Preparing Job Descriptions, and Key Roles And Responsibilities In Hospitality.

Hospitality Job Adverts

Your hospitality job descriptions form the basis of your new job ad. There are other things to add to attract the right employees with appropriate skills, so ensure your ad includes:

  1. An accurate job title – hotel receptionists, restaurant manager, hotel manager, events coordinator, housekeeper, personal trainer, etc
  2. An opening statement – saying why restaurant or hotel staff will want to work for your business
  3. The job’s description
  4. A list of responsibilities – greeting guests, cleaning rooms, serving refreshments, maintaining a good customer experience, etc
  5. Qualifications, personality traits, and required hard skills and soft skills – problem solving, communication skills, focus, hospitality management degree
  6. Job location
  7. Salary range and employee benefits – check the average salary and national minimum wage for hotel jobs and restaurant jobs
  8. Next steps – potential candidates should email xxx or apply via your careers page

We recommend that large, medium, and small businesses use a job advert template to get down the basics and then fill in more detail on the unique aspects of your role, restaurant, organisation or hotel.

How To Hire All Hospitality Staff

HOW TO HIRE A HOUSEKEEPING PROFESSIONAL

To hire a Housekeeping professional, you should begin by describing your company, hotel, or clients. Next, add the role’s responsibilities to entice the best talent, such as restocking consumable items, actioning customer requests, reporting damage or maintenance issues, vacuuming, dusting, mopping, and changing sheets.

Developing a person profile will help you target individuals with preferred skills, such as attention to detail, teamwork, organisation, and trustworthiness.

Housekeeping Job Description Example

Post A Housekeeping Job

HOW TO HIRE A CLEANER

To hire a Cleaner, clarify where cleaning takes place and the typical shift pattern. You can include information about your team and needed skills, such as physical stamina, working to schedules, and politeness.

Focus on vital responsibilities to attract prospective employees, including maintaining an inventory of cleaning products, following health and hygiene guidelines and best practices, and cleaning windows, floors, walls, kitchens, and bathrooms.

Cleaner Job Description Example

Post A Cleaner Job

HOW TO HIRE A CATERING ASSISTANT

To hire a Catering Assistant, your job ad should describe your company culture and the benefits of working in your employ. Many courses and qualifications exist, so you can add a preference for a catering diploma or equivalent experience in catering and food safety.

Our catering assistant job advert allows you to choose the duties relevant to your kitchen, such as cleaning the food preparation and service areas, loading and unloading commercial washers, manually cleaning pots and pans, washing and chopping ingredients, and assisting the sous or head chef, as directed.

Catering Assistant Job Description Example

Post A Catering Assistant Job

HOW TO HIRE A HOTEL RECEPTIONIST

To hire a Hotel Receptionist, you can list your vacancy on job boards, on social media, and your careers page. The job ad should set out the role’s requirements, including Microsoft Office and reservation software literacy.

To compel someone to apply, list the enticing duties, such as welcoming guests to the hotel, checking them in, taking room payments, checking guests out, answering questions, and ensuring high customer satisfaction.

Hotel Receptionist Job Description Example

Post A Hotel Receptionist Job

HOW TO HIRE A PORTER

To hire a Porter, write a text that includes a company summary and the average salary or pay range. To ensure only qualified applicants apply, list your preferred skills, such as positivity, approachability, and excellent communication.

To attract interest, prioritise alluring tasks such as representing your brand, providing a courteous service to hotel guests, moving luggage from reception to guests’ rooms, parking guests’ cars, and explaining the room’s extra features.

Porter Job Description Example

Post A Porter Job

HOW TO HIRE A HOTEL MANAGER

To hire a Hotel Manager, define the team and premises and provide links to resources where candidates can discover more about your brand and company. Depending on the size of your hotel and the complexity of responsibilities, you might ask for applicants with a degree in hospitality management, travel and tourism, or international hotel management. The top talent may be members of the Institute of Hospitality.

Duties to promote include setting and managing budgets, preparing marketing and staff training, arranging maintenance, resolving customer complaint escalations, and ensuring accommodation standards.

Hotel Manager Job Description Example

Post A Hotel Manager Job

HOW TO HIRE A LIFEGUARD

To hire a Lifeguard, you can promote the job on your social media channels, standard or hospitality sector job sites. The Lifeguard role has specific set criteria, so be clear on requirements such as applicants must be over 16, have completed lifeguard training, and be AED, first aid, and CPR certified.

Duties that attract applicants include monitoring the safety and actions of swimmers, responding to emergencies, administering life-saving first aid, and inspecting poolside areas and locker rooms.

Lifeguard Job Description Example

Post A Lifeguard Job

HOW TO HIRE A PERSONAL TRAINER

To hire a Personal Trainer, create a job description that defines if you are a gym or hotel. Describing facilities can encourage applicants, who should hold a personal trainer qualification, be motivational, prepared to work unsocial hours, and have excellent verbal communication skills.

Download Job Advert Template

Tasks of personal trainers include explaining prices and encouraging memberships, advising clients on nutrition and health, running fitness assessments, creating training programmes, and maintaining accurate customer records.

Personal Trainer Job Description Example

Post A Personal Trainer Job

HOW TO HIRE AN EVENT COORDINATOR

To hire an Event Coordinator, highlight employee benefits, average pay, and training and development opportunities. State the personal qualities you seek and if applicants should hold a hospitality degree or equivalent experience.

Enticing job duties include negotiating with vendors, producing invoices, processing payments, determining budgets, and arranging event space, transport, food and refreshments, and entertainment.

Event Coordinator Job Description Example

Post An Event Coordinator Job

HOW TO HIRE A BEAUTY THERAPIST

To hire a Beauty Therapist, describe your spa and facilities, along with the services and treatments to be offered. A beauty therapist must have a qualification such as a Beauty Therapy NVQ.

Getting attention from the right candidates involves including critical responsibilities, such as recommending beauty treatments, sterilising equipment and tools, answering client questions, and performing massages, facials, manicures, pedicures, and hair treatments.

Beauty Therapist Job Description Example

Post A Beauty Therapist Job

HOW TO HIRE A SPORTS COACH

To hire a Sports Coach, describe your company and leisure facilities. State if the individual should have general expertise or proficiency in a particular sport, clarifying if coaching is for groups or individuals.

Duties that help attract candidates include teaching tactics, skills, and techniques, maintaining equipment, and encouraging good sportsmanship. The top talent may have a sports science degree or professional sports experience.

Sports Coach Job Description Example

Post A Sports Coach Job

Advertising Your Hospitality Positions: Referral Schemes, Social Media, & Job Boards

Advertising To Attract The Right Hotel Industry Employees

With your job ad in hand, you are ready to find your new hire. Your hospitality recruitment strategy might include posting your advert:

Internally (Employee Referral Schemes)

A non-incentivised or incentivised employee referral scheme is extremely valuable when you need to engage hospitality recruitment. You will turn your current employees into motivated recruiters, sharing that you are hiring new employees across their social and professional networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter).

Employee referral schemes often bring in promising candidates, with your team’s connections including like-minded professionals with similar expectations of employee satisfaction. To engage this hospitality hiring strategy, share your job postings with your team and reward referrals from employees.

You can discover a few tips on referral schemes for employees by reading Introducing An Employee Referral Scheme.

On Social Media

Hiring restaurant and hotel staff through social media is effective, with free and paid advertising options. The best tips for success include ensuring all your social media accounts deliver consistent messaging and convey a positive image. An active social channel is helpful if you want to build a community of professionals just waiting for an opportunity to join your business. Recommended activity includes posting news, expert opinions, updates, and industry insights.

Our tips and advice for implementing a successful social hiring strategy include:

  • Marketing yourself first
  • Joining industry networks and groups
  • Engaging with respondents and nurturing discussions
  • Using advanced search tools and Recruiter Lite on LinkedIn
  • Using Twitter’s advanced search tool and direct messaging
  • Building activity on your company’s Facebook page and encouraging engagement from existing employees, turning them into business advocates

We explore finding hospitality employees through social media further in our articles Social Media Hiring Strategies For SMEs and Job Advertising On Social Media.

On Job Boards

Download Job Advert Template

Whether your new hire is your first hire or your hundredth, advertising on the most popular job boards is essential if you want to be hiring the right restaurant and hotel staff in an acceptable timeframe. You can post jobs on one job board, or many using an Applicant Tracking System. Job board resellers help you advertise your hospitality job across multiple general, niche, and geographical job boards using their integrated ATS software, minimising the hassle and time of developing leads and hiring a good hospitality and hotel staff.

Leading General Job Boards:

Niche Job Posting Sites:

Aggregator Job Sites:

Geographical Job Sites:

You can advertise your job on these job boards today.

Reducing recruitment Process Costs And Time: Recruitment Companies & ATS

Reducing Hiring Costs In The Hospitality Industry

Budgets, deadlines, and administration require careful consideration whenever you instigate the recruitment process. To get the best results, you may decide to work with a recruiting firm with a UK wide focus, a global recruitment partner, or a niche recruitment company.

We discuss agency fees and recruiters in these two articles; How To Avoid High Recruitment Agency Fees and The Pros And Cons Of Having A Recruiter On Retainer.

Fixed Cost Recruitment

Fixed-cost recruitment allows you to hire at a flat fee governed by the level of service and functionality you desire.

The success of fixed-cost recruitment depends on the company offering the service, the methodologies they deploy, and their expertise and knowledge of your industry or business sector. You will need to determine which actions you need assistance with to use flat-fee recruitment successfully.

Four steps to leveraging fixed cost recruitment to hire hospitality employees:

  1. Place ads across leading job boards
  2. Search CV databases and social media channels
  3. Headhunt and shortlist potential employees
  4. Receive interviewed and qualified candidates

Useful resources:

Applicant Tracking Systems

Automatic Tracking Systems can significantly reduce the costs of hiring restaurant and hotel staff by creating efficiency. Candidate, vacancy, and advert management fall within the software’s parameters.

Team access creates a unified place to work, helping you build a seamless hiring process and candidate experience.

Five steps to centralising recruitment with ATS:

  1. Find hospitality and hotel staff online
  2. Review candidate scores
  3. Distribute personalised messages to a large candidate pool
  4. Automate responses
  5. Direct candidates to application forms

To explore all the features and benefits of Automatic Tracking Systems, read Centralising Recruitment With ATS.

Screening Job Seekers & Conducting Interviews

Screening And Interviewing Potential Employees

Before your interview process begins, you need to shortlist potential employees by reviewing their CVs or resumes. Indications that you have candidates worth interviewing include:

  • Quantifiable evidence of past achievements and skills
  • The individual has steady career progression
  • The candidate is not job-hopping
  • The CV is free from spelling and grammatical errors
  • The candidate has the relevant business experience, knowledge, and skills to meet the job requirements

Decision-makers and hiring managers need to be prepared to deliver a consistent interview experience. It helps to ask the same interview questions to each prospect, to aid candidate scoring. Ensure anyone who has candidate contact is on the same page and understands the brand’s vision, values and opportunities. Interviews should be challenging, supportive, positive, and engaging.

Video interviews are an increasingly popular recruitment solution, saving on resources and speeding up the recruitment process. Video sharing, shortlisting, and feedback from hiring and line managers ultimately generate more successful outcomes. If your firm has not conducted a video interview before, read How To Conduct A Remote Interview.

Our article Defining Your Interview Process, discusses interview questions, avoiding unconscious bias, and interviewing tips.

Presenting A Job Offer & Onboarding Hospitality Workers

Presenting An Offer To Hospitality Staff

When you have finished interviewing candidates and believe you have the right person for your role, you will need to present an offer and onboard the part or full time employee:

Making A Job Offer

The process of presenting the offer to candidates varies depending on what has occurred before. If you don’t already understand the individual’s current earnings, expectations are better managed over the phone. Phone offers should be confident but be prepared to make changes if the individual’s circumstances have changed. Reaffirm that the candidate is happy with the offer, clarify their acceptance, and proceed to a formal written offer, in the same way you would for any business employees.

A formal offer letter from your firm can be conditional (dependent on a background check, etc) or unconditional and should include:

  • Job title
  • Candidate name
  • Your conditions – i.e., this offer is made subject to…
  • Official start date, time, and location
  • Probationary period
  • Offer terms
  • Candidate actions and acceptance instructions – i.e., signed copy of job offer
  • Terms and conditions of employment (issued within two months of the start date)

You can read further on Presenting A Job Offer here.

Onboarding Hospitality Employees

The onboarding process should support the employee as they become part of your team.

Actions for onboarding staff might include:

  • Creating an employer identification number
  • Presenting the individual with an employee handbook
  • An office tour, introducing the person to their manager, team, and senior executives
  • Informing the person of the communication methods and software to use in the new role
  • Presenting clear responsibilities and duties
  • Defining new role expectations, standards, and performance indicators
  • Gathering feedback from new hires

How To Hire FAQs

Here we answer your hiring questions.

What does a hospitality employee do?

These professionals use their skills to deliver a customer experience, which may involve serving, processing transactions, cleaning, or managing others.

How To Hire Staff In Different Sectors

Find our recruitment guides for different sectors below:

All Hospitality Job Descriptions

Post All Hospitality Jobs

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